mpurdy's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
This book took me awhile to get through not because it was bad but because it was emotional to read. Obviously with this being about slavery it deals with tough stuff but it's important to face the tough thi gs and hear it from someone who understands. The writing was well done and very moving.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Sexual violence, Death, Violence, Racism, and Rape
rachpushoffski's review
5.0
This is fantastic. The privilege to be able to look back on your ancestry and say “I came from here, this is what made me” is so immense. And Black people have to work so much harder for this gift. This is a beautiful story of culture, family, legacy, the American beginning, and a quest to determine just who one really is. Everyone should read it
pamelawrites's review
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
“Always remember – you’re a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president.”
Bettye Kearse grew up hearing stories about her ancestor Mandy, who was stolen from her West African home and landed in Virginia. Mandy’s daughter Coreen was sired by James Madison Sr, father of our nation’s fourth president. The younger Madison then impregnated Coreen, his step-sister.
Griots are West African storytellers and oral historians, charged with the preservation of genealogies, historical narratives, and oral traditions of their people. In 1990, Kearse became the 8th generation griot for her family. For two decades, Kearse researched, traveling and tracing her lineage from West Africa to Portugal and up and down the East Coast - including Montpelier, James Madison’s home a half hour from Richmond, and the White House. The result is this book.
Superb storytelling. Meticulous research. Pain and family pride transmuted into prose.
kahale's review
4.0
A young woman who is related to both President James Madison and his slaves traces her journey in finding her family as she is given the box of 'treasures" her family has kept for over 100 years. Very eye opening as to how Black people may view their heritage from being the children of slaves and whites.
shelfiegen's review against another edition
4.0
more memoir/personal than I expected but I thought it was well done
bethmaye98's review
5.0
The other Madison’s is an amazing and incredibly moving book. I love how the Bettye went back and forth writing in first person then in Mandys perspective. There is information in this book I 100% was not taught in school and it should be talked about. Absolutely would recommend. The addition of the family tree at the beginning of the book is very resourceful I referenced it several times throughout reading.
onceandfuturelaura's review
4.0
"If you shake any family tree, a chain will rattle." (143)
Once upon a time, a child was born in what would become Ghana and was named by her loving parents. One day playing near the ocean, she was kidnapped by slavers. She survived the brutal transit where so many where thrown into the sea that the beads in their hair would wash up on the beaches. She was sold to the Madison family one of those the beads her mother had braided into her hair still there.
The Madison's named her Mandy. It was not her name.
James Madison Senior raped her, and she bore a daughter, Coreen. Coreen's half brother, President James Madison Jr., raped her. They had a son, Jim.
Jim and his cousin Virginia were good friends, maybe more. To put a stop to that, Dolly Madison sold Jim away. Jim had many grandchildren, some who survived to Emancipation. One of those was the great grandfather of the author.
The family had a tradition bought from Africa -- someone in the family would be appointed the griot, who kept the family stories. That position was passed down from generation to generation, from Mandy to Coreen to, currently, Dr. Bettye Kearse, the author of this book.
The family also had a motto -- "Always remember - you're a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president." (37). When Dr. Kearse was anointed griot, she was also given the job of writing this book. She took the charge seriously. She decided to take on the heavy task of confirming the stories handed down.
President Madison has no acknowledged living decedents. A distant nephew on the direct male line declined to submit to DNA testing, darn him, so they cannot get that final piece that would confirm. I don't think it matters. Family stories about parentage are generally admissible in court even if hearsay.
This book is hard. It doesn't tell us anything an educated person should not already know, but it tells it in a raw, immediate way that makes the monumental injustice and pain inflicted on this family hard to abstract away. They were brought here in chains, treated as things, brutalized, raped, and forced to bear their owners' children. The ongoing injury of that boggles my mind.
The absolute outrage of having to live in a world that denies the truth of that pain is also boggling. While researching, Dr. Kearse has to face people who flatly deny the truth of our history, including, occasionally, at breakfast. (97-98).
Dr. Kearse went to Africa several times. She stood before the heroic statutes of Prince Henry the Navigator who opened up the West African slave trade to Europe. (110) She saw people selling pretzels and soft drinks where in Lagos where, once upon a time, captives were chained to massive iron posts in preparation for their sale. (110-13).
She came to terms, more or less, with the fact that Madison was their ancestor because of rape. That Madison may have been raping his half sister while helping write the constitution. (May the judgment not be to heavy upon us.) Our Constitution dances around the word "slave." They are "other persons." E.g. Const. art. I, sec. 2. Other persons, not part of the polis, but here. (Maybe the judgment should be heavy upon us.) The slaves were blamed for their own rapes, the way we still blame those hurt by our systems for their own hurt. (142).
Dr. Kearse does a really nice job of making that analogy vivid in a conversation with her friend Nola, who had stayed in an abusive relationship until her family physically intervened. Until that conversation, Dr. Kearse was still trying to conceptualize Manny and Coreen's relationships with the Madisons as something other than rape. Nola's husband was horribly abusive, and she put up with it for the children and because she thought he might kill her if she left. No one intervened for Manny and Coreen. They may have made the best of a horrible situation. But it was still rape.
She suggests a saying for America: "If you shake any family tree, a chain will rattle." (143)
A great book about our nation. Well worth the time.
Once upon a time, a child was born in what would become Ghana and was named by her loving parents. One day playing near the ocean, she was kidnapped by slavers. She survived the brutal transit where so many where thrown into the sea that the beads in their hair would wash up on the beaches. She was sold to the Madison family one of those the beads her mother had braided into her hair still there.
The Madison's named her Mandy. It was not her name.
James Madison Senior raped her, and she bore a daughter, Coreen. Coreen's half brother, President James Madison Jr., raped her. They had a son, Jim.
Jim and his cousin Virginia were good friends, maybe more. To put a stop to that, Dolly Madison sold Jim away. Jim had many grandchildren, some who survived to Emancipation. One of those was the great grandfather of the author.
The family had a tradition bought from Africa -- someone in the family would be appointed the griot, who kept the family stories. That position was passed down from generation to generation, from Mandy to Coreen to, currently, Dr. Bettye Kearse, the author of this book.
The family also had a motto -- "Always remember - you're a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president." (37). When Dr. Kearse was anointed griot, she was also given the job of writing this book. She took the charge seriously. She decided to take on the heavy task of confirming the stories handed down.
President Madison has no acknowledged living decedents. A distant nephew on the direct male line declined to submit to DNA testing, darn him, so they cannot get that final piece that would confirm. I don't think it matters. Family stories about parentage are generally admissible in court even if hearsay.
This book is hard. It doesn't tell us anything an educated person should not already know, but it tells it in a raw, immediate way that makes the monumental injustice and pain inflicted on this family hard to abstract away. They were brought here in chains, treated as things, brutalized, raped, and forced to bear their owners' children. The ongoing injury of that boggles my mind.
The absolute outrage of having to live in a world that denies the truth of that pain is also boggling. While researching, Dr. Kearse has to face people who flatly deny the truth of our history, including, occasionally, at breakfast. (97-98).
Dr. Kearse went to Africa several times. She stood before the heroic statutes of Prince Henry the Navigator who opened up the West African slave trade to Europe. (110) She saw people selling pretzels and soft drinks where in Lagos where, once upon a time, captives were chained to massive iron posts in preparation for their sale. (110-13).
She came to terms, more or less, with the fact that Madison was their ancestor because of rape. That Madison may have been raping his half sister while helping write the constitution. (May the judgment not be to heavy upon us.) Our Constitution dances around the word "slave." They are "other persons." E.g. Const. art. I, sec. 2. Other persons, not part of the polis, but here. (Maybe the judgment should be heavy upon us.) The slaves were blamed for their own rapes, the way we still blame those hurt by our systems for their own hurt. (142).
Dr. Kearse does a really nice job of making that analogy vivid in a conversation with her friend Nola, who had stayed in an abusive relationship until her family physically intervened. Until that conversation, Dr. Kearse was still trying to conceptualize Manny and Coreen's relationships with the Madisons as something other than rape. Nola's husband was horribly abusive, and she put up with it for the children and because she thought he might kill her if she left. No one intervened for Manny and Coreen. They may have made the best of a horrible situation. But it was still rape.
She suggests a saying for America: "If you shake any family tree, a chain will rattle." (143)
A great book about our nation. Well worth the time.
bgoodbookclub's review
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
4.0
This one was super interesting to me, especially because my first job was working in the gift shop at Montpelier. It was super cool to hear Kearse speak about going to locations in my town.
I really wish that she had included more about whether Montpelier has published anything about James Madison, Jr.’s relationship with Coreen. Clint Smith's recent book “How the Word is Passed" really dove into Monticello and their discussion of Sally Hemmings so it would be interesting to see what Montpelier says in response to Kearse’s work. I am also interested in if their gift shop carries this book because they usually have a lot of books on hand.
I really wish that she had included more about whether Montpelier has published anything about James Madison, Jr.’s relationship with Coreen. Clint Smith's recent book “How the Word is Passed" really dove into Monticello and their discussion of Sally Hemmings so it would be interesting to see what Montpelier says in response to Kearse’s work. I am also interested in if their gift shop carries this book because they usually have a lot of books on hand.